Orphan Wells as an Energy Storage Solution

艾伯塔省到处都是废弃的和孤立的油井；有9.7万口油井没有关闭，还有7.1万口没有开垦、成为孤儿和离开。当油井和气井不再生产时，如果该设施没有任何法律责任，或在财政上无法支付废弃和开垦费用，井眼就会成为孤儿和/或被遗弃。目前的监管制度要求项目在井下和地面进行回收，这对石油和天然气生产商来说是一笔巨大的成本和责任。加拿大联邦政府计划花费17亿美元清理在加拿大西部成为孤儿和/或被遗弃的油井。这是他们针对能源行业的新冠肺炎经济应对计划的一部分，目的是创造就业机会和净化环境。这项数十亿美元的投资管理加拿大的非活跃油井，旨在减少伴随着惊人数量的非活跃油井而来的负债额。在艾伯塔省，这些油井由艾伯塔省能源监管机构(AER)管辖，后者随后将清理责任委托给艾伯塔省孤儿油井协会(OWA)，以继续他们成功退役油井的工作。从2002年到2018年，OWA退役了大约2200口孤儿井，并开垦了800口其他井。他们的工作仍在继续，因为艾伯塔省一半以上的油井不再生产，被遗弃和未清理。华纳商业园区有限公司(Warner)为加拿大石油和天然气行业提供了一个独特的解决方案：通过重力势能将不活动的井筒负债转化为可再生能源存储系统。该项目将利用萨伊特现场的一口训练井建造和实施第一口井下井的原型。

Alberta is full of abandoned and orphan wells; there are 97,000 wells that have not been closed and 71,000 not reclaimed, orphaned and left. When oil and gas wells are no longer productive, if the facility does not have any legal responsibility or is financially unable to pay for abandonment and reclamation costs, wellbores become orphaned and/or abandoned. Current regulatory regimes require projects to be reclaimed, both downhole and at the surface, with significant cost and liability to oil and gas producers. The federal government of Canada plans to spend $1.7 billion to clean up wellbores that have been orphaned and/or abandoned in Western Canada. This is part of their COVID-19 Economic Response Plan for the energy sector to create jobs and clean up the environment. This billion-dollar investment manage inactive wells in Canada is designed to reduce the amount of liabilities that come with the alarming number of inactive wells. In Alberta, these wells are under the jurisdiction of Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) who then delegates clean up responsibilities to the Alberta Orphan Wells Association (OWA) for the continuation of their work of successfully decommissioning wells. From 2002 to 2018, the OWA decommissioned approximately 2,200 orphan wells and reclaimed 800 others. Their work is still ongoing as more than half of Alberta's wells are no longer in production and have been abandoned and left uncleaned. Warner Business Park Ltd. (Warner) has presented a unique solution for Canada's oil and gas industry; to convert inactive wellbore liabilities into renewable energy storage systems through gravitational potential energy. This project will build and implement the first prototype for a downhole well using a training well on site at SAIT.